13 June, 2007

Tressostar has just discontinued green, gray, and ORANGE handlebar tape! What are they thinking?

TA has confirmed that we can get another 100 Pro 5 VIS cranks. This was a 60th anniversary batch that was forged, but never polished. I wonder what they planned to do with them if we had not bought them, just dump them? You can reserve a set. This is all there is; forever; really, unless they dig up another dusty box.

Honjo will finish our fenders late next month. The fenders will take 2-3 weeks to ship. When they arrive we'll have several new models.

Our Velo Orange brand fenders will be finished next week and will ship by freighter. If they look good we will immediately order a 650b version.

We are out of Ostrich bar bags and, for the first time, are really pushing a Japanese company to finish an order ASAP. We'll see if it works.

If you want decaleurs or racks you should order soon. We will run out for 4-8 weeks. Sorry but our sales have increase threefold this year and we just didn't plan for it.

The Porteur chaincases should be available next week.

I think the name of our eventual built-in-Taiwan bikes will be Cycles Escargot. The idea is to have a less expensive line of bikes, but without diluting the VO brand name. Opinions please? We are shopping for a factory to make a 650b touring frame and a 650B city bike frame. These will also be sold as complete bikes.

I am almost finished designing an absolute top of the line cost-not-considered VO frame. The intent of this frame will be to be as light, look as beautiful, and ride as well as any rando bike on the planet. I don't think a $2500 frame will sell particularly well, but I'd like VO to have a halo product that folks will consider alongside Singer, Weigle, Mariposa... Of course saying it is the easy part. Johnny, you have your work cut out for you.

Speaking of Johnny, frame orders have been rolling in steadily and the wait time for a Rando frame has now increased to 8 months. The first mixte city bike is back from the paint shop and I'll post photos very soon.

Does anyone want to order the first VO Camper frame? We will sell the first couple at cost (with racks.) But we get to pick the paint and some of the options.

68 comments:

Escargot? Hmm snails aren't exactly the thing people think of when they want to buy a bike. Why not something prettier? If you want to keep the french theme, there are plenty of names out there that would resonate better (just like Mariposa occasionally has an Alcyon bike).

The halo bike should be quite nice, and $2500 might not be too bad depending on kit (I think a Heron Randonneur should probably be your competition/benchmark if it is off the shelf). If you are just talking frame, then why wouldn't someone just go to a builder directly for custom sizing, i.e. what are you offering as a middleman? Also, for a name, call it your bespoke service. Very excited to see it though.

Tarun, that's $2500 for a frame. A Heron, while a fine bike, in nowhere near the class of bikes we're discussing. And not every builder can design or build a frame like a VO, you only need to ride a few custom bikes to see that; sizing is the least of it.

Adam, I want to improve the flashlight bracket, which means I need to make a prototype. Which means I just have to find the time to do it. Once I order them they will only take two weeks to make.

Andy, The Camper is to be a serious long wheelbase low trail loaded touring bike with full blown racks made by Nitto. Sample racks are on the way to us. It will have lighting and a generator mount. Wheels are 650B with room for 45mm tires. The brakes are cantis. The color may be a dark orange. It will also be a great bike for dirt/gravel roads.

Michael, The Toyo-built frames that are now in process are lugged and our aim is make them squeak in at under the $1000 mark. I don't know if we can do it; wish us luck.

The frames from Taiwan may be TIG welded; we have not yet settled that issue. You wouldn't believe how complicated the decision making process is for a production frame. The choices and details are endless.

The Camper will be around $1250 for the first few, plus about $200 for racks if you want them. I expect the final version will $1600+.

"Escargot" sounds right, it rhymes with deux chevaux and brings to mind something affordable, cheery and utilitarian. I'd hope is has an unmistakably french look, like a 2CV.

Is the camper going to be lugged or fillet brazed. Fillet brazed seems to be the tradition, at least in japan. I can think of only one lugged Toei camper on the internet. Might that be due to lug availability, style preferences (1940s lug shortages??) or is a heavily brazed frame considered stronger?

Joel,I yield to no man in my love for steel bikes. Chris stated "as light...as any rando bike on the planet". Taken literally this would indicate a material other than steel.Chris,What is the environmenta issue with titanium?

Escargot sounds nice, and it probably is an accurate description of it's likely velocity, but will it appeal to custmoers and potential/new customers enough to be a sustainable brand? For non-Francophiles/phones it could sound like a utility bike (i.e. to carry cargo).

If it's got to be French:Campeur, Nomade, Voyageur, Expédition, Audax(notice the accent!). How about place names: Ventoux, Aix en Provence, etc.?

Annapolis is interesting.

I realize my taste in bicycles & accessories aren't widely shared. For that reason, I would like to see VO and others producing such goods be sustainable businesses in the marketplace over the long run. This will require broadening market appeal in my humble opinion. Escargot may well work against that.

escargot is ok, but may be too trendy--in the sense that it may become unfashionable quickly and therefore become a liability. how about vagabond? it evokes the wanderer as do the well-used and durable gitane and nomade.

Basically, it's more destructive and energy intensive to produce. For a nice overview of the relative benefits and drawbacks (environmental and otherwise) of the big 3 frame materials, see Grant Peterson's 1994 Bridgestone USA catalog (with thanks to Sheldon for providing the scans):

I wouldn't ride or buy a bike called Escargot at any price point. Sorry. Even if the bike is inexpensive, the name should be elegant - and Escargot, IMO, is not an elegant choice for a bicycle name - silly, cheeky yes, elegant, no.

I love "Cycles Escargot." Elegant and cheeky, sez me. I'm surprised that the reaction is so divided.

I also like the idea of the halo randonneur. I don't like "Super Randonneur" because that title has a very specific definition from ACP.

I also think that VO brings a lot to the table in the niche of the $2.5k frame, namely their manufactured-to-order parts and accessories. Even if Chris doesn't braze the tubes himself, I believe that his approach, and the vision of maison orange adds a lot of value to a bike.

. . . and I say this as a four-time Super Randonneur, who is shopping for a bespoke bike.

Let's not pretend that iron mining is any kinder to the environment than titanium. I've seen what the open pit mines have done to parts of northern Minnesota. The tailings from titanium mining may contain more heavy metals, but the tailings from iron taconite also contain asbestos which leaches into the water. And how about Emron paint?

I see a dented Cinelli track bike just sold for a fast Buy-it-Now of $5000. Cinelli never brazed a frame either. Maybe some day V.O. frames will be collectors items. More likely just neat bikes that people ride, which may be better.

A buddy of mine has a very old Austrian kayak called a "Bummler". He is in the boating industry so I asked him where the name came from. He said "The Austrians looked up the word "vagabond" in the German-English dictionary and found the word "bum". They though this sounded like a catchy name."

Seems to me Bummler is a better fit for the campers! I remain a strong fan of Escargot.

BTW, responding to some posts further up, my camper is a custom lugged bike. Bruce Gordon has spent the past quarter century making truly lovely lugged camping bikes whose satisfied riders have taken them to every corner of the planet.

It's not often I get to show off my Austrian dialect chops, but a 'Bummler' is a rambler, from the verb 'bummeln.' Not sure of the etymology*, but usage has been common in Austria for a very, very long time. German wikipedia even lists it as a semi-official colloquialism for regional trains in Switzerland and Austria.

"I bin a oida Bummler und hobs net eilich mit'n Radlfoahn"

(* = Under the Hapsburgs, Austria was a multicultural state and adopted vocabulary from French, Czech, Hebrew, Hungarian etc.)

Did you hear about the Frenchman who painted a big "S" on his new car? When he drove by, people would say: "look at that S CAR GO!!"But seriously folks, I think that name is OK, but not great. It wouldn't keep me from buying one, but I think you can do better.BTW, Nissan has a little van called the S-Cargo, modeled after a 2CV Camionette:

"Bummler" (or maybe "bummeler"?) would also have a connection with a very old-school nugget of wandering-around-on-bikes culture: if you like a) vacationing on bikes and b) dry British humor, get thee a copy of "Three Men on the Bummel" by Jerome K. Jerome:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Men_on_the_BummelIt was still in print in England (as of a few years ago, anyway, when I got my copy) and is available free on Project Gutenberg.

The wikipedia page linked above includes an explication of the term "bummel".

i would say the main difference between ti and iron mining is how much destruction there is in comparison to how much net material you gain from the destruction. IE ti, might on the surface seem just as destructive as iron, but to get even a small amount of ti, you have to extract alot more material than you do for iron. also, the costs and energy used to refine ti are much higher. there is a reason ti is 150 dollars a tube...

Dear Chris:For the budget bike line, how about "Bici Naranja by Velo Orange?" Alternately, in a tribute to the Oriental frame origin, "Plum Blossom by Velo Orange," which would give you an excuse for purple bikes, or white bikes.

As for the welded/lugged question, that's a real quandry. Good luck with THAT!

As much as I liked the book I mentioned above, and as much as the definition of "bummel" in that Wikipedia entry is in keeping with the spirit of the 650b renaissance, I'd probably vote against "Bummel" or "Bummler". Without getting all focus-groupy, let's face it, you probably don't want the first syllable of your product name to be a popular synonym for posterior.

But "Valencia" - I like that a lot. Or how about "Clementine"? It even sounds sort of French...

I am not arguing against the value of the bike per se, sorry if I misunderstood the market you were aiming at. I assume then that these bikes will be aiming for the very high end which is fine. I am sure the bikes will be lovely. I think your store is a lovely tribute to a type of cycling that more people should be interested in than are. I have to admit I am lusting after some of those Toei that you posted earlier personally....

I like Valencia a lot too. Escargot is kinda cute but I get an association of earthy and slimy with it. Valencia, as in the fruit, suggests something fresh and sweet and healthy. And also Spain seems to be a hotbed of cycling lately, including the community of Valencia.

What about 'sabot' for a model name? Sabot is a french word for wooden shoe, the kind worn by 18 and 19th c. workers in france, and the basis for the word 'sabotage,' as in throwing a wooden shoe into the machines as a form of anti-industrial protest. I was going to name my new Surly 'Sabot' but my five year old thought 'Pam' would be better, and well, she has a point.M Burdge

You could use the name of our sailboat, which is the French word "Rouille". That might be a fun name for a steel bike because it refers not only to a red-colored chili-based sauce that is served as a garnish with fish mostly in Provence, but it also literally means "rust"...

Just saw on your Rene Herse thread that the top end is going to maybe be the "Grand Cru"? I definitely like the wine analogy, so maybe something similarly wine-inspired for a more humble line of bikes?